>> if you are kissing all day, but it is the accumulation of the metals. >> so everyone should be careful. ask your doctor. i take that back. the fda should look at it if it is getting in your system. i hopehey will study it as well. >> all right, doctors, good to see you. back to our top story, the fox news alert, the united nations is confirming they are dispatching chemical weapons experts to the site of alleged poison gas attacks in syria as the white house is saying now there is, quote, very little doubt that the uh sad regime was the one that used chemical weapons against its own people and u.s. warships are poised and ready in the region. we wish you a good morning. 24 is a brand-new hour of "america's news headquarters." i am jaime colby. >> i'm eric shawn. pressure has been mounting on the president since last year president obama called the

chemical weapons use in syria unacceptable and one that there will be consequences. since reports of that attack in syria near damascus, and in this video there are reports of hundreds of people, more than 300 killed and thousands more reportedly consulsing and gasping -- convulsing and gasping for air. allies are considering how to respond. this as the u.n team, syria says, will investigate. elizabeth program is live in -- elizabeth pramm is live in washington. >> they will agree to meet with u.n inspectors outside of damascus where the weapons were deployed. the obama administration says the damage has been done. a senior administration official says the regime's delay says they are intentionally delaying the inspection to hide the evidence of chemical weapons and not only is it too late to be credible, but much of the evidence has been corrupted

which brings the question, what will, if any action, will the president make. the president is waiting to make an informed decision on how to respond. some law i can makers say the time is now. >> we can even destroy the syrian air force if we wanted to. i sent a let torte chairman of the joint chiefs of staff to ask what kind of options can we do. i just think we have to move and we have to move quickly. >> according to a senior u.s. defense official four destroyers have been positioned in the eastern immediate mediterranean. there is no decision about what these ships will do. >> president obama has asked the defense department to prepare options for all contingencies. we have done that. again, we are prepared to exercise whatever option if he decides to employ one of those options.

>> the president met with national security advisors just yesterday to consider his options. >> thank you, elizabeth. jaime? >> for more on what the u.s. military option these have with syria let's bring the fox news military analyst. gentlemen, good morning. >> hi, jaime. >> this is sad -- good morning to you -- but this is beyond belief. the president is expected to take action and we have ships at the ready. what are our options? >> well, if this campaign does go down, and it is increasingly looking like it will x it will come off as something like shock and awe light. it will be a standoff campaign delivered by air and sea platforms and prince plea cruise missiles at sea or bombs under the syrian defense umbrella that will be targeted hopefully at syrian chemical sites and command and control

headquarters. as you heard earlier, expose military facilities, such things such as airbases and the troop concentrations and so forth, jaime. >> so today a statement from senator mccain and senator graham calling for the following -- and i think this is interesting and want to ask your take. using standoff weapons without boots on the ground and at minimal risk to our men and women in uniform, we can significantly degrade uh sad's air power and create safe areas. can it really be done without boots on the ground? >> i don't think so. the big chemical threat is not from the air force and not from their missiles. it is from the artillery and rockets. remember, jaime, we have had this discussion before. war is ultimately a test of will. the syrian army is a tough band of killers.

they are hardened soldiers and the leadership has resolved. just standing off and throwing a few missals and dropping a few bombs on the key targets is like what we in the military call a feel good bombing. it gives the president the ability to say he has done something, perhaps some may make america feel better, but degrading the syrian army to attack its own people in this civil war, i don't think much will come out of it, jaime. >> and if that air power in anyway gets civilians, syria will blast to the entire world that we have done something wrong, right? >> just think about this. let's say the syrians, dye -- diabolical as they are releases chemical gases against their own people and then blames us. the scenarios are infinite. the downside is huge. the upside is very small. this is a sectarian civil war. becoming a third party, an

active participant as a third party in a civil war is not good strategy. we should give the rebels small arms. for some reason we haven't done that yet. we should give them anti-tank missiles. don't give them anti-aircraft missiles. they could fall in the hands of al-qaeda. help the opposition fight this war to the best we can. but for heaven sakes let's not get involved in a shooting war with the syrians. >> the defense attorney says we still have to determine whether or not it is the assad regime responsible if these attacks happened or the rebels. does it matter who did it if so many innocent women, children and other uhville yens are dying? and what other countries can we count on to also participate? it always seems to fall on the united states. >> always falls on the united states. if you talk to states in the region, particularly jordan and turkey and even france and britain, they are extremely reluctant to get involved in

syria. as are the israelis. the syrians are not like the egyptians or the iraqis or the serbs for that matter. they are a tough, dye bowl dosh dosh diabolical group of killers and can absorb aerial strikes and then press on killing their people with abandon. there is no good end to this, jaime. >> quickly before we go, general, the president is talking tough. will he act? will he do enough? >> gosh, he needs to arm the rebels. he needs to give them the tools they need to fight their own war. i suspect if things go as they are going now, he will do a standoff strike. but the net result for american foreign policy and for that matter for the syrian people i think will turp out to be more bad than good, jaime. >> i imagine our troops and their families are keeping a close eye on this with concern. general, always an honor and privilege to have you with us. >> thank you, jaime. >> have a great day, sir.

eric? >> jaime, there are some new fears this morning that that massive wildfire burning in yosemite national park, well the fire could actually threaten san francisco's water and power supply even though that city is 150 miles away. california's governor jerry brown has declared a state of emergency for san francisco with just about 7% of the fire contained. it has been tearing through some of the most beautiful natural landscape in our nation. firefighters battling the raging fires and scrambling also to try and save thousands of homes. for the very latest let's go to dominic who joins us with an update. dominic, overnight the fire grew. what can you tell us? >> yes, it grew very large overnight, an additional 10,000 acres. it is now about 136 136,000 -- sorry 134,000 acres in sight. it is moving very fast and the winds are propelling it. today they are expecting really strong winds.

in the moment in the canyons anywhere from 5 to 15 miles an hour. over the tops of the ridges it will touch 40. that means we will see exponential growth in the fire. last night we were at duck wall mountain. in that area we saw one part of the forest about a half a mile stretch consumed in just 20 minutes. that was moving into the wind. there is so much dry brush on the ground that it is actually defying the natural elements. even if the wind is pushing it in one direction it is capable to go in all other directions. it is a 360-degree fight that the firefighters have. they are saying that yes indeed the winds will be the biggest enemy today. take a listen. >> with the winds, we are going to have lower temperatures, but you have to remember again critical fuel moistures, some of the dead fuels here, to give you an idea, are at about 5%. you can go to your local lumber store and by a two by 4 and it would be at 9%. it would have more moisture than the tree we are fighting. the fuels are producing

conditions we haven't seen in years. >> the fire is creating spike camps. these are little camps further out into the wilderness where they can get their resources much quicker. it also reduces the fire risk too. risk to the firecrews which is becoming a problem here now. eric? >> dominic, what is the fear for san francisco, and can that fire realistically threaten that city's water supply? >> the way it will threaten it is the fact the authorities have had to switch off two of the three hydro electric dams that feed the city. this is the reservoir. the fire got close and they managed to put it out, but they are concerned some of the pipelines might be affected. it depends how far the fire gets. 11,000 acres were burned out around the dam. firecrews are preventing that from getting worse today. >> we hope that doesn't happen for the city by the bay. and dominic, we will be in touch. thank you so much.

we have new reaction today to the senseless killing of an australian student in oklahoma. that murder triggering outrage here in america and in the student's native country. police are saying that three teens shot christopher lane who was in the u.s. on a baseball scholarship because they told cops they were bored. peter doocy is live in washington with the latest. peter, good to see you. what is the latest? >> jaime, the latest is one of the suspects in this case, james edwards, was dancing playfully at the police station while he was being charged with the murder of chris lane. now this is the same 15-year-old who tweeted in april, quote, 90% of white people are nasty, hash tag hate them. the stevens county police say race is not a factor in this crime. >> the reason i won't be treating this as a hate crime is as far as the evidence goes that is directly linked to the

murder of christopher lane there is nothing inside the files and the audio and the reports that we have been given that would lead us to believe that christopher lane was killed simply because of his nationality or because of his race. >> meanwhile in melbourne, australia, former teammates of the late chris lane laid a wreath and a ball cap on a baseball diamond where lane used to play at a ceremony in his honor. >> today is part of the grieving process. it is important for our clubs to be around each other and to make sure that everyone including the family feels its support and to make sure like they feel like they are not alone. >> the former deputy prime minister in australia is now calling for a boycott on u.s. tourism which oklahoma's governor mary fallon, addresses this, month. >> i understand that people in australia are upset. people in oklahoma are very

upset. people in the united states are very upset with what happened. it is just such a shock that anyone would do what they have done to chris lane. it is unfortunate that australia feels that wayment the united states has been a great friend to australia. >> we should expect to see the three suspects in this case in court in october. the d.a. says the maximum penalty for the two suspects charged with first degree murder is life without parole because since they are just 15 and 16 years old, jaime, they are not eligible for the death penalty. >> well, even is calling for jus -- well everyone is calling for justice in that case. peter doocy live in washington. well, it was a pretty rough week for president obama's health care law. delta airlines announced the so-called obamacare, well it will increase delta's health care costs by about $100 million in the next year alone. meanwhile, ups and the

university of virginia say they will no longer offer health care to the spouses of some employees covered by other medical plans. all of this while the president maintains his plan willower costs and lead to -- will lower costs and lead to better health care. a former spokesperson for vermont govern howard dean, christie and didi, let me start with you. now we have three more firms including the university of virginia who say their costs are going up, up, up because of this. >> the affordable health care act does -- doesn't seem affordable. when you have companies like ups and delta, these are success stories and now they can't cover spousesment as well as these hidden taxes. it is a train wreck and a disaster. it is actually taking people out of business. the list goes on and on.

they keep piling up. when you have the unions gens it and you have democrats who are complaining about it because it is not working and they are so scared that during the mid-term they are going to lose and that's why they had to move back the employee mandate because they are in big trouble and they know it. it is not a good program. maybe the worst policy our country has seen. >> christie, is it the worst policy and a disaster? >> absolutely not. look, this is what i call the papa john affect. companies looking for trons -- for reasons to cut benefits for employees anyway are using obamacare as an excuse to do so. i think reremember when papa johns came out and said they would reduce the number of hours for employees because of obamacare. but the fact is that company still had the money to give away a million free pizzas in the super bowl and make lots of other decisions for their company that way. the broader picture is that employers are looking to cut benefits for employees generally. i think we can all agree that few of us have a pension

anymore. that has gone the way of the dodo bird. and that's the case with the spousal coverage as well. the fact is that more employers are looking to reduce spousal coverage benefits. this is not really about obamacare. it is about again this broader trend of an unfortunate race to the bottom. >> but the result of obamacare apparently is this. some governments are cutting hours and companies are keeping employees below the 30-hour threshold. didi, this wasn't supposed to happen. >> of course it is cause and effect. it is a direct affect. our country, a capitalistic country where people are forced to go from full time to part-time. these people will have to go to 29 hours. what are we, france? this is wrong and a terrible affect and a huge job killer. you know what, what is it with a 26-year-old adult living on mommy and daddy's health care? i don't get that. that's wrong. obviously that was a big campaign push too to get young

people's votes and none of it is working. and how about this one? how about when people sell their house they are taxed 3.9%. all of these hidden taxes within obamacare. it comes out with more and more and more bad news. >> christie, what will they do? republicans want to de fund it. >> i think the efforts to de fund obamacare are going no wherewith a democratic senate and a democratic president whose signature law is the affordable care act. the real question is what do they want to do instead of obamacare and instead of looking to de fund it. i want to get back to something we have been talking about which is health care costs are not going up because of obamacare for large employers. they are going up because health insurance premiums are going up. the year over year rates. this is exactly why we wanted to implement obamacare in the first place. people's year off year premium costs were sky rocketing. most experts will say at this point that those costs are cutting down because of

obamacare. it is working in that sense. it is just that, again, large employers who are overall looking to make cuts in benefits are being able to use -- >> these are good companies. it is a direct result and here is the good news. this is something for republicans and it was for the mid-terms. i think the republicans were going to win back the senate and we will be able to stop at least part of obamacare and defend it all the way. this is all poll i can its. it is not good policiment it was politics. it is not working. let's just hope we will win the mid-term. >> the clock says we are out of time. didi and christie, thanks for being here. keeping an eye on new home sales taking a dive. the biggest drop in more than three years. we'll tell you the reason for this and what it means for our struggling economy. >> plus, voter id. there is another showdown, this one in texas. that's where eric holder's justice department is suing the lone star state again. next, the texas attorney

general will respond and guess what. north carolina could be next.

checking some of your headlines right now, a senior

white house official is saying there is, quote, very little doubt chemical weapons were used by the assad regime against civilians in syria. that coming as the administration weighs a potential military response. meanwhile, firecrews are rushing to save two groves of giant redwood trees from a giant wildfire in yosemite national park, clearing away dried brush and setting sprinklers. and police in florida trying to determine what lead a 72-year-old trucking employee to go on a shooting spree killing two men and injuring two others before turning the gun on himself. from the unrest in egypt to more bombings in iraq and lebenon and the chemical weapon usa tack in syria that will now be investigated by the united nations. a lot of breaking developments in the mideast this morning. and for a look this morning at

that news. >> the romans were right about egypt. they said dogs run when they drink in the river nile, less they be seized by crocodiles. at this writing, it is we who are at the mercy of crocodiles. a quick summary. egyptians caught arab spring fever two years ago and after epic street demonstrations deposed has knee mubarak who ruled the nile for years. after an expensive, but reliable partnership with mubarak, america found itself once more dancing on a high rope in the middle east. with free elections the biggest crocodile of them all, the muslim brotherhood, took over realizing our worst fierce. the new president, mohamed morsi installed like-minded supporters and created an islamist state. and then in a reversal of fate the egyptian armies removed and locked up morsi.

then last week the military regime released mubarak, and now anything can happen. that sense of deja vu you may have watching the bodies pile up on your tv screen is understandable. despite the obama administration's attempt to mince words, the egyptian security forces killed well over a thousand of their country men and imprisoning a thousand more. america's substantial military and economic aide to egypt is a topic for editorial writers. the argument comes to, do we take the high moral road and cut them off, proving our disapproval of tyrants even though we supported them in the past? or do we continue to send military hardware to the army as they unforce their brutal crackdown? once more america finds itself dancing on a high tightrope in the middle east. so far president obama has taken a measured, if not

timid, stance in this critical foreign policy crisis. parades of u.s. officials have pleaded with general al-sisi to stop the murder, but to no veil. he trained at the u.s. army war college and is wide in american interests. but what are the american interests? most important is our relationship with israel. the lynch pin of u.s. strategy designed to preserve peace. the camp david accord signed in 1979 remain the bedrock of egypt's treaty with israel. two years after he signed this milestone in arab israeli history, he paid with his life for signing it. there is also a question of u.s. access to the suez canal, a crucial link for oil and gas headed to europe, asia and the united states. and finally, there is the

looming presence of al-qaeda in the sinai peninsula. there is a depleted and permanently chaotic egypt. if anyone has any doubts about the nature of the muslim brotherhood, consider the frenzied burning and looting of dozens of christian churches these past weeks. there are no jews around to kill. they have long left. so the dwindling christian minority is a handy target. in one reported attack, the brotherhood fanatics tore a cross off the gate of a catholic school and replaced it with an islamic flag. in accounts of the egyptian mayhem, some observers insist on referring to these acts as a product of political islam. is that any different from just plain islam or islamists? whatever the reason, the language of events reported seems designed to soften the reality of what we should have learned on 9/11. one last note.

former dictator and president mubarak is reported to be in a military hospital in cairo. that makes two ex-presidents in custody. will mubarak return courtesey of the generals? at least he is a crocodile we know. >> the battle over voter id. it now moves to texas. eric holder says stop and the state says go. the first test could come in three days. coming up, the state's attorney general will be here to tell us how he will respond.

and now to voting and the latest move against voter id. the obama administration is suing texas in the wake of the supreme court's voting rights decision. the department of justice lawsuit against texas challenging the state's new voter id law. the d.o.g. calls it discrime

gnaw terry. they said we will not allow the decision to be determined as open season for the states that are seen as measures that suppress voter rights. they will take actions against jurisdictions that hinder access to the ballot box no matter where it occurs. we will fight aggressively for voter disenfranchisement. we will look at remaining sections of the voting rights act to guard against discrimination and where appropriate to ask federal courts to require pre clearance of new voting changes. this in the lawsuit is the latest suit. north carolina could be next. joining us is somebody dealing with this at the moment. he is the attorney general of texas, greg abbott, who is in austin. welcome this morning. >> great to be with you, thanks. >> you just heard mr. holder's statement. how dowry spawned -- how do you respond and what would you say to eric holder? >> it is bizarre for two reasons. one is the very week when eric

holder comes to try to shutdown our voter identification law, during that same week the department of justice arrested a woman in ft. worth for voting five times illegally in the very same election proving we have voter fraud and it needs to be shutdown. >> say this again. a woman voted five times? >> eric, earlier this week the department of justice arrested a woman in ft. worth, texas who voted five times in the primary 's last election in the very same election down in brownsville, texas. so it shows that illegal voting is taking place in the state of texas. eric, the other bizarre thing about this is the fact that this is nothing more than what you call selective prosecution. voter id has already been upheld by the supreme court and it is being held and the obama administration is not challenging and there is a new law similar to the texas law in rhode island they are not prosecuting why? rhode island is a blue state

and texas and north carolina are red states. this is nothing more than partisan political politics. >> some say the laws have different restrictions in this sort of thing versus rhode island and your state. >> the similarities between rhode island and texas are very close. just as are the similarities between the ibd -- the indiana law and the similarities between the texas program and the program upheld by the united states supreme court. and eric, one last point that shows how hipocritical this is, but the month -- or the year before barack obama took president, the department of justice at that time filed a brief at the united states supreme court saying voter id's were necessary to prevent voter impersonation. now they have changed their tune 180 degrees. >> the lady in brownsville, if she did indeed vote by absentee ballot, would voter id affect that? critics say no. how about getting an id. you have to drive 200 miles in someplaces.

not all counties have a dmv office. you have to pay to get a birth certificate and those are some of the obstacles they claim the state is trying to put up to prevent voting. >> right. i say not so fast. first of all because the democrats have shown that if they claim that is discrimination, they have shown their discrimination by the fact that they require a sphoa toe id in order to get into the national democrat convention. it is discrime gnaw terry that that -- discriminatory that somebody has to show id to cash a check or buy a beer? of course not. the same is true with regard to voting. the same standards that texas is applying with regards to getting a photo id is not free if you don't have one, and two we pattern our practice based upon what happened in indiana. that law in indiana has already been upheld by the united states supreme court as being perfectly constitutional. >> here are facts from the lawsuit. they say about 6.2% of your voters, almost 800,000 do not have a voter id. and they say, look, 10.8% of

hispanics don't have one and half of the nonhispanics don't. let me read you this pretty blunt and direct quote from the lawsuit. they said the state of texas' history of official racial discrimination against its african-american and hispanic citizens is longstanding and well documented. federal intervention has been necessary toy eliminate numerous devices and intentional use to restrict minority voting in texas. mr. attorney general, it seems the administration is saying the lone star state is racist. >> let me respond -- you raised two points. let me respond to both. first in your question you raise all of these statistics about the number of minorities who may not be able to get access to id's. that's the same theory that they used in a court in washington, d.c. that that federal court already rejected. so they are basing their case on numbers and staw physician -- and statistics that were rejected in a court of law. secondly, they are basing their claim on actions that

occurred in the past under democrats in the state of texas that no longer exist. that's the same theory, eric, that the united states supreme court rejected just two months ago when the united states supreme court said that those patterns and practices that occurred back in the 60s and 70s have now changed dramatically across the country. let me give you one easy example and that is unlike in some northern states, in texas we have shown racial inclusion in the election process by the fact that about a third of all elected officials in the state of texas are racial minorities. one of the things going on in this redistricting lawsuit are the democrats are trying to remove from office five hispanic republicans showing it is the republican party in texas and not the democrats that has been successful in reaching out and being inclusionary. >> then in that lawsuit, they said the redistricting was discriminatory. the final point, the voter id law, wednesday there is the first election inked dinburg, texas.

inked -- what do you think would be involved in that election? >> voter id law is in affect. but that is not the first election we have had that used voter id. we had several others where there is no problem whatsoever. to prove the fact that voter id is not a problem in the state of texas, in the entire state of more than 25 million people there have been 80 requests for a voter id. almost all of those didn't need one because they had a valid voter id. only six people needed to get a valid voter id from the texas department of safety. this is not a widespread problem despite the misinformation provided by eric holder. >> six people out of how many? >> 25 million. >> wow. mr. attorney general, this will continue. i know you will see the lawyers in court. we will be following it. thank you. >> thank you. also in court on monday, the for fort hood shooter

convicted of murder, but will he be put to death? it is less than 24 hours that the deliberations are set to begin and we will look at what history tells us about what will likely happen.

the conviction part is complete. the jury that convict nadal hassan of the deadly shooting he admitted to at fort hood, texas must now decide if he gets the death penalty or life in prison. there are 13 members on the panel and they meet tomorrow in the now penalty phase of his court marshall. the -- court martial. he was found guilty of 13 counts of murder in the mass shooting in 2009. let's talk to our legal panel. kesha is a defense attorney and former prosecutor and david schwartz is a defense attorney and former prosecutor as well.

thanks to both of you for coming in. >> thank you. >> let's start by talking about this death penalty case and the fact, david, that they must sit again now and make a judgment. the families will speak. he may speak too. they want justice. the death penalty is it for some. that makes him a martyr in his mind and a life sentence for others. how do they weigh and balance it? >> they will weigh the mitigating factors versus the33 aggravating factors. the aggravating factors -- the heinous part of this crime and the amount of vehicle times and the mass -- victims and the mass shootings in this crime is so horrible. it is weighed against the usual factors of not giving someone the death penalty. their psychological condition and the fact he was representing himself during this trial. he didn't have real legal counsel. >> he could have. >> he could have. look, there will be a lot of factors. i personally think life in prison will be justice

enough. >> it is rare, kesha, a defendant says "i want death." >> right. >> how do you weigh that? give him what he wants? >> i think what the family members will talk about is they don't want that. that won't be justice in their eyes. one of the things we have to think about is in order to sentence him to death, they have to -- there has to be a unanimous jury finding there was a premeditated murder. and an additional finding of a murder. as david just stated there is enormous evidence to show that this man premeditated it and he wants to die. it is almost like the jurors hands are tied. they will have this come back with the death penalty. it doesn't mean it will happen in the near future. >> let's assume they come back with a death penalty ruling. it doesn't end there. some people may say next month he will get lethal injection. the military hasn't executed anybody that has been convicted of murder in a very

longtime. >> since the 1960s. >> 1961. it has to go through, what people don't understand, an automatic appeal with the military system of justice and then beyond that a civil appeal. the president has to sign off on it. i don't want to get political, but the president still calls this workplace violence. >> look, the fact that in this particular case the president has to take the affirmative act to sign off on it, that will be a rough decision for any president whether it is this president or another president at some point. the defendant will be entitled to a number of appeals. there will be a myriad of appeals. i just think that morally we can't be in the business of killing -- of executing criminal defense. >> look at the victims. can i put the victims back up again? these people lost their lives. they are dead. they are gone.

their families are grieving. this is going on a very longtime. the appeals, kesha, the automatic appeal could go on for decades. >> it could take numerous years. you have to wait for a brief to be submitted and the appellate division will make a decision, and it doesn't happen overnight, especially in a capital case. with this decision the only justice given to the family members is that it won't happen right away. he will suffer and spend like you said decades in prison. >> do you think he would represent himself on the appeals as well? >> it seems that he wants to represent himself. he is also much more costly to keep somebody on death row than the regular systems. >> the fact he represented himself at trial says to me something is not right. he probably could careless. he is not taking this process serious. he will just write it out and represent himself on appeal and -- >> the judge has no say in this, david. this is different. it is up to these members on

this panel. knowing the military has not gone forward with an execution in so long, even though there have been court martials in capital cases, should that weigh in on their decision? >> i think a lot of factors are going to weigh in on their decision. certainly as kesha laid out, the technical aspects are there to grant death. it is in the per view of these jurors. they are going to take into account a lot of environmental factor here's including the fact fact -- including that fact, i believe. >> i think that because of the circumstances of this heinous crime, the jurors are somewhat obligated to come back with a death penalty sentence. they also feel bad for the family members, but how can you not apply the harshest sentence to such a horrible crime. >> an admitted mass murderer. you have to wonder what will happen. we will know maybe as early as

monday. thank you for weighing in david and kesha. always great legal counsel from these two. appreciate it. >> absolutely. political and religious tensions have pitted many egyptians against each other. here at home it is a different story. coming up, how one community is hoping to serve as an inspiration for those seeking peace in egypt.

well, you know religious divisions have lead to death and destruction in egypt and many churches there have been attacked. in the u.s., egyptian immigrants are showing they can work side by side and strive to give peace a chance. we go now live to the new york city newsroom. hi, brian. >> attacks on churches in egypt continues as many in the muslim brotherhood blame christians for president mohamed morsi's overthrow. 6,000 miles from cairo in jersey city, new jersey one of the largest egyptian community muslims and coptic christians stand united for democracy. >> they ask us, how do we live together in peace? we don't pretend -- we don't do it on purpose. it comes naturally. >> this coptic christian has lived in jersey city for the last 27 years.

>> you have a very friendly relationship with our brothers the muslim. they come into our festivals. we go to their ramadan. >> but attacks on more than 40copt cry christian churches and the death of thousands of egyptians strain the community. >> there has been a lot of agony and people are very alarmed to this and who are praying. >> praying for people like coptic christians. two of his cousins were murdered this week. >> each shot in the head, directly in the head. >> he is angry, but as old and new tensions threaten to erupt, some refuse to give in. >> the churches, recan rebuild them. we can rebuild them. what we need is the real justice taking place. real democracy taking place. real freedom taking place. >> the muslims are predicting

it. the muslim brotherhood come and try to defend the churches. >> they hope jersey city can inspire egypt to continue rallying for democracy. >> we want to give an example to everybody. we want to give an example how the egyptian community live in america and how we understand each other. >> a community standing strong despite attempts by the muslim brotherhood to divide. eric? >> brian, we all hope their message is heard in cairo. thanks. we will be right back.